“The principal driver of change is our
own culture,” says Peter Lieb, executive
vice president and general counsel
at Aon plc. As an organization that
consults with clients in more than 200
countries on risk, health, retirement,
talent, capital, and other pressing issues,
Aon takes its own advice. In recent years,
an understanding that increased engagement
begets improved performance has driven efforts
to augment colleague engagement, including
in the legal department. Lieb wants the department’s 425 members to have fulfilling careers
that they enjoy.

Cross that goal with Chief Operating Officer
for the Law Department Audrey Rubin’s strong
belief in LEAN/Six Sigma—“I think it’s the right
approach for all law departments”—and you get
the multifaceted initiative that has resulted in
reduced legal costs, increased budget predictability, improved legal outcomes, and greater
employee satisfaction. The Law Department
Strategic Improvement Project, kicked off in
June 2014 and under full steam by December
2015, includes these elements:

• Partnership with procurement department
for RFP process on trademark and other
legal matters

• Global rotation program for members of the
legal department

• Shifting shared legal services to lower cost
locations.

The desire to increase colleague engagement coincided with an effort across Aon to
contain costs—an intersection right up Rubin’s
alley, a self-described “efficiency nut.” That
tipping point provided Lieb and Rubin with
the opportunity and incentive to take a hard
look at where the legal department could
eliminate waste. One such area was billing
and invoicing by outside law firms. To gain
alignment and buy-in, legal department and
law firm staff attend LEAN/Six Sigma training
together. Through the traditional steps of
mapping current processes, identifying pain
points, and discussing possible future states,
the teams tackle such areas of improvement as
faster completion time, lower cost, and fewer
errors. As a result, the total dollar amount of
rejected invoices decreased by 41 percent. Once
extended to subpoena responses, the initiative
decreased the average subpoena cycle time by
44 percent. Plans for 2016 include extending
the approach to contract reviews and M&A
workflows.

Next, the law department developed a multifaceted RFP process for trademark legal matters
and established a partnership with Aon’s
procurement department to make it hum. The
two groups collaborated on a list of potential